Category Archives: Scams

Rumors about the death of the Twilight star Robert Pattinson have been circulating on Twitter and Facebook over the last few days. With the recent shocking news about Robert’s long-time girlfriend Kristen Stewart had cheated on him, rumor states that Pattinson died due to emotional stress, and was found lying in a pool of blood in his bathtub.

The rumor noticed on Facebook is as follows:

Robert Pattinson of TWILIGHT Died becuase nervous breakdown due of emotional stress. They found him lying on his bath tub along with blood. Police are now investigating. Watch the video on how the neighbors save ROBERT PATTINSON (18yrs & above) ->> [LINK]

The link provided in the message takes you to a Facebook application page, where you are asked to grant permission for the app to access your personal information and also post updates on your behalf. Clicking the “Allow” button will provide the scammer to post Wall updates on your Facebook profile, and spam your friends’ news feed. It is recommended that you avoid clicking on the link.

A similar rumor is spreading about the death of Robert Pattinson, but this one provides a different cause of death. It states that Pattinson died in a single car accident on route 80 between Morrisville and Roswell.

“Very sad news, especially for all the Twilight fans, Robert Pattinson died in a single car accident on route 80 between Morrisville and Roswell. He died on July 29, 2012, at the age of 26…. Friends and family are mourning the loss of a loved one.”

Death hoax about celebrities are nothing new, and Pattinson is not the first actor to fall victim to such a hoax. In the recent past, there have been several such death hoax messages spreading on Facebook and Twitter, which included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves and Mickey Rourke.

A new celebrity death hoax is spreading on Facebook with famous actor Denzel Washington being made the victim this time. The message is being spread through the same satire website which were behind the rumors of deaths of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves and Mickey Rourke.

The story is being spread through a link which leads to the Media Fetcher website and carries the following report:

Actor Denzel Washington is reported to have died shortly after a snowboard accident earlier today – August 2, 2012.

The actor & novice snowboarder was vacationing at the Zermatt ski resort in Zermatt, Switzerland with family and friends. Witnesses indicate that Denzel Washington lost control of his snowboard and struck a tree at a high rate of speed.

Denzel Washington was air lifted by ski patrol teams to a local hospital, however, it is believed that the actor died instantly from the impact of the crash. The actor was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played any part in his death.

Additional details and information will be updated as it becomes available. This story is still developing

Please note that this story is not true and is a hoax. Media Fetcher is a satire website which allows users to create fake news items and spread it on the internet. The site looks similar to a news website which is why several users are fooled into sharing the story further.

Earlier today, while I was on Facebook, I stumbled across a post shared by a friend of mine containing a photo of a “black” lion. Although I knew that something was wrong about the photo, I did a simple search on Facebook, and to my surprise found a boatload of users sharing it. However, the photo is a fake, or in other words, it has been digitally manipulated.

Don’t fall for this hoax message as the picture in the message has been digitally manipulated to make it look like a “black” lion. The picture was fabricated by a DeviantArt user – Pavol Dvorský. The original photo, which is a white lion, can be found at Cute Home Pets website, which discusses about questions and answers about considering to own a white lion as pet.

Here’s the original photo of the white lion:

The only animal-relation that I could find to a “black lion” is the black lion tamarin, also known as the golden-rumped lion tamarin, found in Brazil. However, the black lion tamarin is a type of monkey, and not a lion.

Users need to be aware of this as scammers on Facebook might take it up as an advantage and trick users into clicking malware links, or download them as a program.

Hoax messages like the one above isn’t something new. There have been several such hoax messages reportedly spreading and spamming the social networks. It is always advised that users verify such information before spreading it across to their friends. A quick search on Google will help you find out whether the message is a fake or not.

A new scam message has surfaced the social networking giant Facebook, claiming to offer free $500 Coles gift voucher. The message is a typical survey scam, which asks for your personal and contact information in order to claim the “gift.”

Another viariant of this message is: “Coles is offering free $500 vouchers tor users who click a link in the post.”

This is a bogus message, and there is no such official Coles promotion running. Clicking the link provided in the message will take you to a page where you are asked to “like” and “share” the message with your friends. You are then redirected to an online survey page, where you will be asked to enter your contact information such as your email id and mobile phone number.

Entering the details will yield you nothing. The scammers are misusing the details entered by selling them to third-party services. As you can from the above screen shot, the user had fallen for the scam trick, and entered her mobile details. The scammers are now bombarding her with calls and text messages.

It is recommended that you DO NOT click on such links or scam messages on Facebook. If you come across this scam message, please delete/remove the scam from your Facebook news feed immediately. Alternately, you can report the scam to Facebook Security.

Yet another hoax message is reportedly spreading on Facebook, and this time it is about Facebook donating money for “sharing” a picture of an unhealthy child. This isn’t the first time we’re seeing such a message spreading on Facebook. This appears to be similar to one of the hoax messages that was reported last month – Facebook to Donate 50 Cents for Every “Like.”

The hoax message is spreading with the following message and a picture of a child –

I am not asking you to click “like” but i am asking you to please click share.

For every share of this pic Facebook will donate 1$ to the starving kids all over…

The message claims that Facebook will be donating $1 in order to help starving children every time the picture is shared on the network. However, this is not true, and there is no such donation done by Facebook.

People generally create such messages in order to generate “likes” and “shares” on Facebook. Doing this wouldn’t benefit them in any way, however, they are motivated by the desire to accumulate large numbers of likes and shares on Facebook.

It’s true that sharing such messages creates an awareness, however, “liking” or “sharing” will not help this or any other child in any way. It is always advised that users verify such information before spreading it across to their friends. A quick search on Google will help you find out whether the message is a fake or not.

A new scam message has been doing the rounds on the social media network Facebook, enticing users to click on the link in order to view leaked images of Canadian actress Sunny Leone. We have seen similar such scam messages spreading the past including, Nicki Minaj Gets Caught on Tape, and Kim Kardashian Exposed.

The Sunny Leone leaked images scam is spreading with the following title with the same description, along with the link to a rogue Facebook application:

Sunny Leone Leaked Jism 2 Nude Undressing Scene Ex : [link]

Clicking the link provided in the scam message will take you to a Facebook app page, where you will be asked to authorize the app to post updates on your behalf and also have access to your basic personal information, including your email id.

It is highly not recommended that you authorize app like this. Scammers generally misuse the information they have obtained by either trying to hack your Facebook account, or sell it to third-party organizations, who in turn will spam your inbox.

You will then be redirected to a Blogspot site, which is designed to look like a Facebook page. You will notice a fake video player, and clicking the play button will like-jack your Facebook account. You are also presented with a set of online surveys.

Whatsoever you do, there are no leaked pictures shown to you. The creators of the message are simply trying to gather as much information as possible from your Facebook account and misuse them to the highest extent.

In case you have already fallen for this trap, then I recommend you to deauthorize the rogue app from your Facebook account. To do so, go to your Facebook Account Settings. From the menu on the left, select “Apps.”

Identify the app that you want to remove, and click on the “x” mark. This will open a pop-up window where you will be asked to confirm whether you want to remove the app or not. Before you click on “Remove” button, make sure you have checked the “Delete all app activity” option. Once done, the app will no more be associated with your Facebook account.

It is recommended that you DO NOT click on such links or scam messages on Facebook. If you come across this scam message, please delete/remove the scam from your Facebook news feed immediately. Alternately, you can report the scam to Facebook Security.

Not every Facebook user has fair knowledge about how they are being tricked into sharing their Facebook information with spammers. Some install rogue applications, while some click on spam links. Of late, users are being tricked by a fake email, which appears to be a “notification” from Facebook, but with a fake email id with an extra “o” in it.

The fake email id – notification(at)facebooo(dot)com has an extra “o” in the domain name. Users generally do not notice this and tend to believe that the email is genuinely from Facebook. The email contains a message indicating that the user has been tagged in a photo on Facebook. It also contains two button links “See Photo” and “Go to Notifications,” which when clicked, activates and runs a malware program automatically, reportsSophos.

Clicking the link provided in the email will not take you to your Facebook account; instead it will redirect you to a bogus web page that is hosting a malware program. The malicious grogram is designed to put your computer at high risk using the Blackhole exploit kit. Seconds after that, you will be redirected to a random Facebook profile page.

Security firm SophosLabs, have investigated on this and concluded with the detection of the malware as Troj/JSRedir-HW. Read more about the malware here.

If you receive any email that is claiming to be coming from Facebook, then make sure you check the email details before clicking on any of links embedded in it. The best practice is to ignore the email and go to your Facebook profile directly t check for notifications.

Yet again the Nicki Minaj scam on Facebook has started to appear after it was reported to be spreading on the social networking site back in May. However, this time the scam is spreading with a picture along with a link that leads to a bogus web page.

Clicking the link provided in the message will automatically download a malware program on your PC. Not just that, this will also lead to Facebook click-jack and like-jack in which your Facebook account will automatically “like” and “share” the same message with your friends.

It is highly recommended that you DO NOT click on such links or scam messages on Facebook. If you come across this scam message, please delete/remove the scam from your Facebook news feed immediately. Alternately, you can report the scam to Facebook Security.

Facebook is one of the best platforms to share anything that is interesting and catchy. However, there are several users on Facebook who fail to drive attention and would want to get more users to “like” their Facebook page, or their work. Such users create a challenging task and ask users to “like” or “share” their pages in order to see something interesting, or in this case a magic trick.

Quite recently, there have been a lot of blurred images spreading over Facebook with a message at the bottom stating, “First Like, then Share, and then see the magic.” For instance, here’s an blurred image of Mickey Mouse that is spreading with the message:

The above image was shared by popular cricket star Virat Kohli on his Timeline, and has also tagged over 50 people in it. Believing the star, many of his fans “liked” and “shared” the same image in order to see the Facebook magic trick, and for obvious reasons, the so called “trick” didn’t work.

Similarly, there are many such blurred images that are spreading, asking users to “like” a Facebook page in order to see the magic trick work. After having “liked” and “shared” the image, or the link to the Facebook fan page, users have realized that nothing happens and there is no “magic.” They have also acknowledged that it doesn’t work by adding their comments.

Needless to say, users need to understand that there is no such magic, even if they “like” a fan page, or “share” it with their friends. The creators of such messages are simply trying to increase the number of “likes” for their Facebook pages. It’s not only pointless to spread this message, but you’re also making a fool of yourself by sharing such messages with your friends.

I recommend that you avoid sharing messages like the one showed above and avoid spamming your friends’ news feed. Also, make sure you tell your friends about it by sharing this post with them. We at Techie Buzz always try to keep you updated with the latest scams spreading on Facebook. You can follow our dedicated Facebook page where we report all spreading scams – Techie Buzz Scam Monitor.

While Hollywood actors being killed by people who spread hoaxes on the Internet is not new, pranksters have now decided to target popular Bollywood actors as well.

After Micky Rourke and John Cena were recently declared dead by hoaxers, popular Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was also killed by some internet idiot in an accident. The report of the death of Amitabh Bachchan spread like wildfire on Twitter and Facebook. However, the actor is definitely safe and sound and has been tweeting fun tweets.

The message was spread through a link on a satire website called swell server and had the following report:

(Local Team News 9) Amitabh Bachan died in a single vehicle crash on Route 80 between Morristown and Roswell. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics responding to the vehicle accident and was identified by photo ID found on his body. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been a factor in this accident – June 28, 2012

Highway Safety Investigators have told reporters that Amitabh Bachan lost control while driving a friend’s vehicle on Interstate 80 and rolled the vehicle several times killing him instantly.

The vehicle was believed to have been traveling at approximately 95 miles per hour in a 55mph zone at the time of the accident.

Witnesses have stated that Amitabh Bachan’s car crossed the double lines several times prior to the accident and hit the center lane divider causing the vehicle to flip and roll.

Toxicology tests will be performed to determine whether he was driving under the influence, however initial findings indicate that durgs or alcohol did not contribute in any way to this accident as it was more likely to been caused by road conditions.

Memorial services for Amitabh Bachan have not yet been announced. The service is expected to be a closed casket funeral due to the severe head trauma.

Additional details and information will be forthcoming as they become available.

This story is 100% false and is a rumor. Please do not fall for such stupid news in the future. Also, in future do not spread such stories and try and confirm things through your local news.